It is not about popular rule, but something else entirely. The idea is twofold:

* The elites still are the elites and rule, but factions within the elites instead of fighting it out by assassinations, purges or overt civil wars let the masses choose which faction to empower.

* By letting the masses choose which elite faction rules, the masses are made accountable for policy. In he USA the masses have re-elected Bush and all those congressmen who have done TARP, PATRIOT, searches without warrants, torture of brown nobodies just-in-case, the Iraq invasion, the retaliation against Afghanistan, mass financial fraud.

Representative democracy is a way for elites to turn violent conflicts among factions into propaganda conflicts (the winners are not the one with the best thugs but with the best spin doctors), and to make the masses co-responsible for policy, at the price of giving them the ability to choose which elite faction to install. The goal really is not to get good government, but to make sure that both elites and masses are accountable for their own stupidity if they choose stupid policies (in the hope that they will then learn to choose better policies).

One vital feature of this arrangement is that voters are allowed to choose between factions within the same elites, but they are not allowed to change elites, and if they try, *the elites will elect/bribe new voters* (instead of vice-versa.)